Russia Is 'Propping Up' The Assad Regime, Secretary Clinton Says

By resisting efforts at the United Nations to bring concerted pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the killing in his country, Russia is "in effect, propping up the [Assad] regime at a time when we should be working on a political transition," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said earlier today in Copenhagen.

Clinton also told an audience that Russia's implicit support for Assad could "help contribute to a civil war" in Syria, The Associated Press reports.

And the AP sums up the news from Clinton's comments this way:

"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that every day of slaughter in Syria is strengthening the case for tougher international action, yet stressed that military intervention would require support from the world community and Syria's ally Russia."

Wednesday, as Eyder reported, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, warned about the danger of "a proxy with countries all over the region and beyond funneling weapons" into Syria.

Since protests against the Assad regime began in March 2011, as many as 15,000 people have reportedly been killed — most at the hands of government forces and paramilitaries, according to the U.N. The Assad regime insists that many of the deaths have been the work of "terrorists."